Chapter 4 of the Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali is entitled Kaivalya, which means final liberation. The Chapter explains
how the mind is constructed and veils the inner light of the Self. It describes
how the yogi deals with the natural breaches in enlightenment, and how the
primal building blocks of the mind resolve back into their cause, allowing
final liberation.
The 34 sutras of Chapter 4 have been divided into 12 sections:
Means of attaining experience
(4.1-4.3)
1) The
psychic powers may be obtained either by birth, or by means of drugs, or by the
power of words, or by the practice of austerities, or by concentration.
Some are born with psychic powers as a result of their previous
lives and others as saints who are filled with the knowledge of the love of God
even in childhood. They often grow up untouched by the temptation of
worldliness.
Certain drugs may produce visions, but these are invariably
psychic, not spiritual. Furthermore they may cause prolonged spiritual dryness
and even permanent damage to the brain.
The repetition of sacred words or mantras is an invaluable aid to
spiritual progress.
The practice of austerity enormously strengthens will power.
Concentration is the surest of all means of obtaining psychic
powers.
2 2) The transformation of one species into
another is caused by the inflowing of nature.
3 3) Good and bad deeds are not the direct
cause of the transformation. They only act as breakers of the obstacles; just
as a farmer brakes down the obstacles of a water course, so that water flow
through by its own nature.
Here Patanjali explains the Sankhya theory of evolution by using
agriculture means as an example. The farmer who irrigates one field from a
reservoir does not have to fetch water. The water is there already. All he has
to do is open the flood gates and the water will flow.
The water is the flow of evolution which according to Patanjali,
each one of us carries within himself, only to be released.
Vivekananda says:”All, progress and power, are already in every
person. Perfection is in every person’s nature it is however often blocked from
taking expression. If the block is removed, perfection rushes in.”
There is a radical difference between Eastern and Western ideas of
evolution.
As an example, the West would put forth the idea that sexual
selection and survival of the fittest are adequate, but suppose, humanity
decides to eliminate competition and the acquiring of a mate, then according to
the theory put forth, human progress would stop and the race could die.
Patanjali on the other hand, declares that the true secret of evolution is the
manifestation of the perfection which is already within every human being, but
has been barred from expression. When man realizes his true nature as a
spiritual being, he will open the obstructing barrier and his perfection will
manifest.
Accordingly, there is no reason to believe, that competition
is necessary to progress.
Emergence and mastery of mind (4.4-4.6)
4 4) The ego sense alone can create minds.
5 5) Though the activities of the different
created minds are various, the one original mind controls them all.
The different minds, which act in different bodies, are called
created minds and bodies. Mind and matter are like two inexhaustible
storehouses. A yogi learns the secret of their control. The material, out of
which a created mind is made, is the very same material which is used for the
macrocosm. It is not, that the mind is one thing and matter another, they are
only different aspects of the same thing.
6) Of the various types of mind, only
that which is purified by samadhi is freed from all latent impressions of karma
and from all craving.
Karma can only be exhausted by spiritual realization; never by
mere experience.
Actions and karma (4.7-4.8)
7)
The karma of the yogi is neither white nor black. The karma of others is
of three kinds: white, black or mixed.
When the yogi has attained perfection,
his actions and the results produce by those actions, do not bind him, because
he is free from desire. He just works on. He works to do good and does good,
but he does not care for the results of his actions. The ordinary men who have
not attained to that highest state, works are of three kinds: black, or evil,
white or good and mixed.
8)
Of the tendencies produced by these three kinds of karma, only those are
manifested for which the conditions are favorable.
In any particular incarnation, a
person’s condition is determined by the balance of his karma. Suppose that
balance is favorable and he is born to become a monk and a spiritual teacher,
he may still have some bad karma which under less favorable conditions would
produce negative tendencies. But, because he has to live up to his vocation and
set a good example, these tendencies are kept in abeyance, and only his
positive tendencies would manifest. This Sutra stresses the importance of the
right environment in which one can unfold his positive tendencies.
Subconscious impressions (4.9-4.12)
9) Because of our memory of past
tendencies, the chain of cause and effect is not broken by change of species,
space or time.
By memory Patanjali does not imply conscious remembering, but
unconscious impressions received in past lives with the actions and thoughts of
our present life. Karma, the chain of cause and effect is continuous. Only
tendencies appropriate to the species will be manifested in one life.
10) Since the desire to exist has always
been present, our tendencies cannot have had any beginning.
We have learned that yoga philosophy regards creation, maintenance
and dissolution as a continuous process. Karma has always operated and created
tendencies. There was no primal act. It is only as individuals that we can set
ourselves free from karma by unlearning this desire to exist on the phenomenal
level and realizing the Self, our eternal nature.
11) Our subconscious tendencies depend
upon cause and effect. They have their basis in the mind and they are
stimulated by sense objects. If all these are removed, the tendencies are
destroyed.
Karma can only operate and produce tendencies as long as certain
causes are present. These causes are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion,
and the desire to cling to life.
The effects of these causes are re-birth, a long or short life and
the experience of pleasure and pain. Basically, karma is routed in ignorance of
the Self. Remove the ignorance and you destroy karma.
12) There is the form and expression we
call past and the form and expression we call future; both exist within the
object at all times. Form and expression vary according to, past, present and
future.
Objects and the three gunas (4.13-4.14)
13) They are either manifest or subtle
according to the nature of the gunas.
14) Since the gunas work together within
every change of form and expression, there is a unity in all things.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that which is nonexistent can never come
into being and that which is, can never cease to exist and will continue to
exist potentially within the object. Past and future exist within the object in
an un-manifested subtle form. Nevertheless, they are there. Nothing in the
universe is lost.
All objects are compounds of the gunas. The gunas may project a
gross manifestation i.e. visible and tangible object. Or they may project a
subtle manifestation which is not apparent to the senses. They may also alter
their interrelationship so that rajas may become dominant in place of sattva in
which case the form of the object may change entirely. But since the gunas
never cease to be present in one form or another combination, the object
preserves an essential unity, even in the diversity of its forms and
expressions.
If we accept reincarnation, we can see that the same mind exists
essentially throughout the rebirths of an individual. It is only the interplay
of the gunas that makes the mind alter its form and expression in different
incarnations; now seeming predominantly evil, or predominantly good.
In the mind of a good person, the past evil impressions still
exist in subtle form and possible future impressions, whatever they are to be,
also exist.
How then is liberation possible? Patanjali has already answered
the question several times and he has restated his answer in sutra 11.
Our subconscious tendencies, he says, have their basis in the
mind. Therefore, a person must cease to identify himself with the mind in order
to gain liberation. When he knows beyond doubt, that he is the Self and not the
mind, he is made free from karma.
The mind of a liberated soul, with all its past, present and
future impressions, has no longer any existence as a phenomenal object, but it
is not lost.
Mind perceiving objects (4.15-4.17)
15) The same object is perceived in
different ways by different minds. Therefore the mind must be other that the object.
16) The object cannot be said to be
dependent on the perception of a single mind, for if it were the case, the
object could be said to be non-existent when the single mind did not perceive
it.
17) An object is known on unknown, depending upon the mood of the mind.
In these two sutras, Patanjali refutes the philosophy of
subjective idealism. Following Sankhya philosophy, he admits the reality of an
objective world which is independent of our mental perception.
Illumination of the mind (4.18-4.21)
18) Because the Self, the Lord of the
mind, is unchangeable, the mind’s fluctuations are always
known to it.
19) The mind is not self-luminous, since
it is an object of perception.
20) And since it cannot perceive both
subject and object simultaneously.
As we have become aware, the mind is not the seer, but the
instrument of the Self which is eternally conscious. The mind is only
intermittently conscious of objects and its perceptions of them vary according
to its own fluctuations. The mind is changing all the time and so is the object
of perception. The Self alone by remaining unchanged provides a standard by
which all perception can be measured.
21) If one postulates a second mind to
perceive the first, then one would have to postulate an infinite number of
minds and this would cause confusion of memory.
If a philosopher in order to avoid admitting the existence of the
Self were to suggest that the mind is really two minds, a knower and an object
of knowledge, then he would find himself in difficulty. For if mind A is known
by mind B, then one must postulate a mind C and so forth. There would be an
infinite number of progressions causing nothing but confusion.
Buddhi and liberation (4.22-4.26)
22) The pure consciousness of the Self is
unchangeable. As the reflection of its consciousness falls upon the mind, the
mind takes the form of the Self and appears to be conscious.
23) The mind is able to perceive because
it reflects both the Self and the object of perception.
The mind stands midway between the Self and external objects. Its
power to perceive the object is only borrowed from the Self.
24) Though the mind has innumerable
impressions and desires, it acts only to serve another, the Self; being a
compound substance, it cannot act independently and for its own sake.
Every combination of individuals or forces in this world has to
have purpose for its action or existence; otherwise it would be just a
meaningless, functionless collection of objects brought together haphazardly.
25) The man of discrimination ceases to
regard the mind as the Self.
26) When the mind is bent on the practice
of discrimination, it moves toward liberation.
Breaches in enlightenment (4.27-4.28)
27) Distraction due to past impressions
may arise if the mind relaxes its discrimination even a little.
28) They may be overcome in the same
manner as the obstacles to enlightenment.
That is, by meditation and by resolving the mind back into its
primal cause. (See Chapter 2, Sutra 10 and 11).
Perpetual enlightenment (4.29-4.30)
29) He, who remains un-distracted even
when he is in possession of all the psychic powers, achieves, as a result of
perfect discrimination, that Samadhi which is called the cloud of virtue.
30) Thence come cessation of ignorance,
the cause of suffering and freedom from the power of karma.
When the yogi cannot be turned aside from the path of
discrimination even when he is faced by the temptation of psychic powers, then
knowledge is said to shower down upon him like a rain cloud, a “cloud of
virtue,” pouring down liberation and bliss of God.
Knowables become few (4.31)
31) Then the whole universe, with all its
objects of sense knowledge becomes as nothing in comparison to that infinite
knowledge which is free from all obstructions and impurities.
To people in ordinary sense consciousness, the universe seems full
of secrets. There seems so infinitely much to be discovered and known. Every
object is an invitation to study. He is overcome by a sense of his own
ignorance. But to the illumined yogi the universe does not seem at all
mysterious. It is said that if one knows clay, one knows the nature of
everything that is made of clay. Therefore when one knows the Self, one knows
the nature of everything in the universe.
Gunas after liberation (4.32-4.34)
32) Then the sequence of mutations of
the gunas comes to an end, for they have fulfilled their purpose.
33) This is the sequence of the
mutations which take place at every moment, but which are only perceived at the
end of a series.
The gunas as mentioned in chapter II,
18, form the universe in order that the experiencer may experience it, and thus
become liberated. When liberation is achieved, the gunas have fulfilled their
purpose.
Time is a sequence of moments and
therefore a sequence of mutations of the gunas which take place at every
moment. We only become aware of these moment-changes at intervals, when a whole
series of them has resulted in a mutation and becomes apparent to our senses.
For example, we are not aware from
moment to moment that a bud of a rose is opening, but in time, we see its
flower. The same thing happens at the end of a series of mental impressions and
thoughts leading to a decision of an idea.
However, to the illumined soul, time has
no reality. There is no sequence of thought patterns. He controls time, as it
were and knows past, present and future like a flash in the eternal now.
34) Since the gunas no longer have any
purpose to serve for the Self, they resolve themselves into Prakriti (nature).
This is liberation. The Self shines forth in its own pristine nature, as pure
consciousness.
Self Realization - Nature’s task is
done. This unselfish task which nature has imposed on itself comes to an end,
as she gently takes the forgetting soul by the hand and shows it all the
experiences in the universe, all manifestations, bringing it higher and higher
through various realms until at last it remembers its true nature. Then, the
kind Mother Nature goes back the same way she came, for others who also have
lost their way and thus, she works without beginning and without end, through
pleasure and pain, through good and evil until all souls are floating in the
river of perfection, of Self
Realization.
